Design that Matters Field Journal

DtM-Kinkajou Team in Mali

After a quick dash through Paris for croque monsieurs at Trocadero and a team photo under the Eiffel Tower, we arrived in Bamako on Wednesday night. We've had a busy schedule ever since!

On Wednesday, we met Violet Diallo from Ashoka, who has been enormously helpful in getting us squared away here in Mali. Violet helped us navigate the crowds at the airport baggage claim and Mali customs. She has loaned the team a cell phone for our trip (vital for arranging meetings in Bamako on a tight schedule) and yesterday helped us find an apartment in the city. She also introduced us to Mustafa, our fearless driver.

Thursday morning, we got our first look at Africa. Crossing from our hotel lobby onto the street, Liz said, "It's like walking into movie." Woman in brightly-colored pagnas, door-to-door tailors clacking scissors and carrying their sewing machines on their shoulders, sheep nibbling at the hedges. The air smelled like charcoal smoke and this kind of distinctive, peppery spice. It was hot and surprisingly humid--although not yet Florida hot.

We spent Thursday morning and afternoon at the Mali Folkecenter (MFC) with the director, Ibrahim Togola, his colleague Tom Burrell, and the rest of the staff. They gave us a tour of the facility and a brief presentation on their work in Mali. We also demonstrated the Kinkajou projector and got their feedback on the design.

That evening, we followed Tom, Jack and their driver to Koumantou, a town to the southeast of Bamako. On the way, we stopped for dinner in Bougouni and had our first Malian french fries.

We spent Thursday night in a village outside Koumantou, and on Friday Tom gave us a tour of the MFC projects in the region. The first project was the multifunction platform--a diesel engine converted to run off a kind of vegetable oil, and connected by belts to two kinds of seed press machines. One machine produced a paste from nciya nuts, turning eight hours of manual labor into fifteen minute's work. The other machine pressed jatropha seeds, the oil of which was used to power both the multifunctional platform engine, as well as the MFC team's truck.

In the Koumantou region we also visited a solar technology training center. whose buildings were designed for woodless construction using arches, domes and barrel vaults. Construction techniques like this reduce the demand for wood in construction, and thereby help to reduce regional deforestation and desertification.

Just before we left, we visited a village clinic where MFC had installed a 60-watt solar panel, fluorescent lights and a solar-powered refrigerator. The local doctor demonstrated how important solar lighting was inside the dimly-lit clinic, even during the day.

So now we're back in Bamako. We've reclaimed Martin's lost luggage and we've all had a chance to organize our field notes and take care of laundry. We'll head back out of the city tomorrow. We've got lots of pictures from our first field visit, which we'll post as soon as I can find an internet cafe with USB-enabled computers.

Posted by Timothy Prestero at July 12, 2003 01:02 PM